Burleson v. State
| Decision Date | 21 May 2015 |
| Docket Number | No. 2013–KA–00772–SCT.,2013–KA–00772–SCT. |
| Citation | 166 So.3d 499 |
| Parties | Charles David BURLESON, II a/k/a Charles Burleson v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Office of State Public Defender by Erin Elizabeth Pridgen, George T. Holmes, John Carl Helmert, Jr. attorneys for appellant.
Office of the Attorney General by Melanie Dotson Thomas, attorney for appellee.
EN BANC.
¶ 1. Charles David Burleson II appeals his conviction and sentence for capital murder with the underlying felony of robbery. Finding that the trial court erred in amending Burleson's indictment to charge him as a violent habitual offender and in denying Burleson's proffered circumstantial-evidence instruction, we reverse Burleson's conviction and sentence and remand this case for a new trial.
¶ 2. On Saturday, May 15, 2010, Donnie Holley returned to his home in Thrasher, Mississippi, after a fishing trip with his son Scott. As he was checking his mail, he noticed a white car driving off his property and away from his house. When he entered his house, he found his son Steven lying on the floor in the living room. Steven was completely unresponsive, and a pool of blood had collected under his head.
Donnie immediately called 9–1–1. Steven was taken to the hospital, but doctors were unable to revive him, and he died from his injuries five days later.
¶ 3. Officer Derrick Hester of the Prentiss County Sheriff's Department and his partner Officer Tammy Johnson were the first to respond to Donnie's 9–1–1 call. They arrived at the house around 1:00 p.m. After medical personnel arrived to tend to Steven, Officer Hester and Officer Johnson investigated the rest of the house. The bedrooms in the house appeared to have been ransacked. In Steven's room, clothes were strewn across the floor, dresser drawers had been left open, and the mattress had been thrown off the bed.
¶ 4. Officer Hester called Investigator Roy Ragin of the Prentiss County Sheriff's Department to assist with the crime scene investigation. Upon entering the Holley residence, Investigator Ragin observed blood stains on the couch in the living room, next to where Steven was found. Investigator Ragin collected a knife discovered under Steven's body, but he did not observe any blood on the knife. Investigator Ragin observed that a medicine cabinet in the house was in disarray, as if someone had rummaged through it. Outside the house, Investigator Ragin found broken glass from the storm door in the Holleys' carport, and one of the metal bars on the storm door was missing. Investigator Ragin interviewed Donnie to find out if anything was missing from the house, and he also spoke to some of the Holleys' neighbors. Donnie stated that a flat-screen TV, a DVD player, and some prescription medication were missing from the house.
¶ 5. After leaving the Holleys' house, Investigator Ragin received a call from Joey Clark, a narcotics investigator with the Prentiss County Sheriff's Department. Investigator Clark previously had worked on a case involving Steven, and he offered to help Investigator Ragin locate people who might have been associated with Steven. Investigator Clark met with Investigator Ragin and Officer Hester on the evening of May 15 to discuss the investigation.
¶ 6. At around midnight on May 15, Investigator Clark and Investigator Ragin received a text message from Tammy Cook, who lived approximately twenty miles from the Holleys, asking for details about Steven. Investigator Ragin went to Cook's house to interview her. Cook told Investigator Ragin that a man named Jeremy Huguley had been to her house at least twice that day, once early in the morning and again around 1:00 p.m. On his second visit, Huguley had arrived with his girlfriend Kayla Cartwright and another man, later identified as Burleson, whom Cook did not recognize at the time. Huguley, Burleson, and Cartwright had arrived at Cook's house in a white Oldsmobile. Cook watched Huguley take a metal bar out of the car and throw it into the woods next to her house. Huguley also retrieved a garbage bag from the car and placed it under Cook's porch. Huguley and Cartwright then left in the white car, but Burleson stayed outside, talking to Cook's son Max. Shortly thereafter, someone driving a green Ford Mustang picked up Burleson. Max then retrieved the metal bar that Huguley had thrown into the woods, and Cook retrieved the garbage bag that Huguley had left under her porch. Cook inspected the contents of the garbage bag and found prescription medication information forms with Donnie Holley's name on them. At that point, Cook contacted Investigator Clark and Investigator Ragin. Cook also told Investigator Clark that Huguley previously had left a gun at her house, hidden in Max's room. Huguley had come back to her house while she was gone and retrieved the gun and took $200 in cash from her son's room.
¶ 7. Based on Cook's statements, Investigator Ragin notified the police to be on the lookout for a white Oldsmobile or a green Ford Mustang. Cartwright and Huguley were both taken into custody in the early hours of May 16, 2010. Huguley was intoxicated when he was brought to the police station, so he was not interviewed at that time, but Investigator Ragin was able to interview Cartwright. Investigator Ragin received Cartwright's consent to search her home for the items missing from the Holley residence. Cartwright and Huguley were living together at the time. At Cartwright's home, Investigator Ragin found a flat-screen TV, a comforter, some CDs, an electric drill, two wallets, and a cell phone, all of which belonged to the Holleys. Investigator Ragin also found prescription medication bottles belonging to Donnie Holley in a garbage can outside Cartwright's house.
¶ 8. Cartwright stated that, before noon on the day of Steven's attack, she and Huguley had picked up Burleson at a truck stop in Baldwin, Mississippi. After stopping briefly at Cartwright's house, the trio went to the Holleys' house in Thrasher. They all rode together in Cartwright's white Oldsmobile. When they arrived at the Holley residence, Cartwright stayed in the car, while Huguley and Burleson entered the house. Cartwright asked Huguley and Burleson to look for her hair straightener, which she previously had left at the Holley residence. Huguley could not find the straightener, so Cartwright went inside to tell Steven what it looked like. When she entered the house, Steven was sitting on the couch in the living room, and Burleson was sitting across from him on a love seat; Huguley was not in the living room. Cartwright then went back outside and sat in her car while she waited for Huguley and Burleson. Huguley later brought Cartwright her straightener and then went back inside the house.
¶ 9. Shortly thereafter, Cartwright recalled that Cartwright was sure that Burleson and Huguley had each brought an item to the car “because two people can't really be at one place at the same time.” Either Burleson or Huguley—Cartwright could not remember who—also placed a toolbox in the car. The contents of the toolbox were unknown to Cartwright at the time. When Huguley got in the car, he had a wallet, a cell phone, and some cash, which he had not had earlier in the day. As they were leaving the Holleys' house, Cartwright saw Donnie checking his mail at the end of the road.
¶ 10. After leaving the Holley residence, Cartwright, Huguley, and Burleson went to Cook's house in Jumpertown. Cartwright observed Huguley speaking with Cook's son Max, holding the metal bar from the Holleys' storm door in his hands. When Huguley returned to the car, he did not have the metal bar anymore. Burleson's girlfriend Stacy Filgo picked up Burleson from Cook's house, and Cartwright took Huguley to Booneville to pay his bail bondsman.
¶ 11. Burleson was arrested by U.S. Marshals in Oakland, Tennessee, on May 19, 2010, as he was leaving a Walmart. At the time of his arrest, Burleson was with Filgo. They had arrived at the Walmart in a green Ford Mustang, with Burleson driving. Under the driver's seat of the car, police recovered a handgun. Cook identified the gun as the one Huguley had taken from her house on the day of Steven's attack.
¶ 12. On October 26, 2010, Burleson and Huguley were indicted for the capital murder of Steven Holley, with the underlying felony of robbery. The Prentiss County Circuit Court ordered the defendants' trials to be severed. On May 16, 2012, the State moved to amend Burleson's indictment to charge him as a habitual offender under Section 99–19–83 of the Mississippi Code. In support of this motion, the State presented evidence that Burleson previously had been convicted of five separate counts of burglary and larceny of a dwelling. The trial court granted the State's motion to amend the indictment on June 11, 2012.1 The State also announced prior to trial that it would not pursue the death penalty against Burleson. Burleson's trial commenced on October 8, 2012.
¶ 13. At Burleson's trial, the State introduced into evidence the metal bar found outside Cook's house. Investigator Ragin testified that the metal bar appeared to have come from the Holleys' storm door, and Dr. Thomas Deering, who had performed Steven's autopsy, testified that Steven's injuries were consistent with having been caused by the bar. The State also introduced the handgun found under the driver's seat of the car Burleson was driving on the day of his arrest. Cook confirmed that this gun was the same gun Huguley had retrieved from her house on the day of Steven's attack. After the State rested its case-in-chief, Burleson moved for a directed verdict, arguing that the prosecution had failed to present sufficient evidence of the elements of...
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